


Christmas Couple

by MelyndaR



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Winter Wonderland ficathon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-14
Updated: 2016-12-14
Packaged: 2018-09-08 14:08:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8848048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: In which Angie is just desperate enough, and Jack likes her just enough... or possibly a lot.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is short, I know. I could continue this and go so many places with it. I know that, too, but, unfortunately, I simply do not have the time to do so. I'm not even sure if it follows the spirit of the ficathon very well... I hope you guys enjoy this as is, anyway!

“Pour me something strong, Jim.”

At the order from one decidedly unhappy Angie Martinelli, Jack Thompson watched skeptically out of the corner of his eye as the bartender obeyed. The pretty, bright waitress usually cheered up the battered, darkened bar – the traditional after work watering hole of the New York SSR – from the moment she stepped inside, but the way she’d just sloughed onto the stool next to him reminded Jack far more of your downtrodden average Joe.

He didn’t like seeing that expression on her usually cheerful face.

He watched her toss back a shot and grimace almost comically at the taste, then he declared frankly, “You’re a little late to the party. Most of the boys from work already headed home.”

“I was talking to my mother on the phone.” The explanation came out halfway snappish, halfway weary, and Jack raised his eyebrows. It had always sounded like she had a great relationship with the members of her huge family. Seeing his expression, Angie sighed, gesturing for Jim to bring her a second drink as she explained, “I love my family to death, and they love me the same, but I _am_ single… and it’s the holidays… and they’ve decided that they would like to see me settle down. What that _means_ is that there was a nice guy waiting to meet me at my parents’ for Thanksgiving.” Dropping her chin heavily down onto a raised fist, Angie sighed, finishing, “And from what my ma just said on the phone, I have the sneaking suspicion it’s going to happen again at Christmas – and I don’t want it to.”

Jack grimaced. “That’s miserable; my mother and sister tried that a couple of years ago, and I told them to never do it again. Maybe you just need a little more liquid courage in your system, then go back to your place, call your mother again, and tell her not to have any eligible guys there.”

It sounded simple enough to him, but Angie turned to face him with a glum, nearly defeated expression, declaring, “ _Clearly_ you have never tried to talk my ma out of getting her way. It’s near impossible!”

“You got that from her, then?” Jack asked with a taunting smile.

Angie jabbed an elbow in the direction of his ribcage, giving him a small, dry smile, but otherwise his clumsy attempt at cheering her up failed. Righting themselves on their respective barstools, Jack offered, “I’d help you if I could, but putting my foot down is basically the extent of my know-how in dealing with women.”

“Then you know nothing about women,” Angie informed him flatly. “That’s also probably why you’re still lonely and alone.”

“Who said I’m ‘lonely and alone’?” Jack asked, taking a sip of his bourbon.

“Why else would your ma and sister want to set you up with a gal?”

Jack blinked, his train of thought shifting gears for a second before he asked with a half-smile, “So, am I to take it that you’re ‘lonely and alone,’ Angie?”

She glared at him over the rim of her glass and didn’t dignify that with a response. Which Jack found made him _actually_ curious, oddly enough. He wasn’t dumb enough to ask a second time, though, and instead they sat side by side and silent until their drinks were gone.

He’d had more to drink then she had already that night, he knew it – and the proof was in the pudding, judging by what he said after he’d ordered another round for them both. “You know, I think I might have an idea of how I could help you, if you want.”

Angie raised an eyebrow at him. “I’m all ears.”

Jim plopped a couple of tumblers down in front of them, and Jack took a long drink of his before he suggested, “I could be your date for the holidays.”

Angie blinked at him in surprise before saying, “That’s sweet of you to offer, really, but I don’t think you understand what you just said. Christmas celebrations take up the entire month of December with my family. You’re eating with a different family every night, and then _everybody_ gets together for Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve.”

Feeling mildly horrified for her at the idea, he asked, “Does that mean that there’s likely to be a new guy for you to meet at each family dinner?”

Angie raised her glass with a nod. “Now you know why I’m drinking.”

“Hm.” Jack frowned thoughtfully, raising his own drink to his lips and letting the idea stew in their minds as it was for the time being. At the end of the night, though, as he rose to walk her out – not that she’d asked, but by his way of thinking it was the gentlemanly thing to do when a lady was looking a little tipsy – he said, “My offer still stands… for the whole month of holiday ‘celebrations,’ if you want. My family lives up in Chicago, so I’ve got nothing better to do for the holidays.”

She snorted, but he couldn’t tell whether or not she was being sincere as she looked up at him, eyes glittering underneath the cool light of a streetlamp. “Thanks, Chief; I’ll keep that in mind.”

They walked the rest of the way to Howard’s townhouse with her hand on his arm, chatting idly, tiredly about Carter, the weather, and their respective jobs. Turning away from her place once he was sure that she was safely inside for the evening, Jack pulled his collar up to ward off the cold of New York City in late November. Now facing the wind, he spared a thought for the fact that he probably should’ve been irritated at having doubled the amount of time he spent in the miserable weather thanks to her… but seeing her smile again in his mind’s eye, he realized that he wasn’t irritated in the least. In fact he was smiling as he walked to his own apartment.

But he didn’t stop to let himself wonder why he was smiling, not then – and certainly not when he picked up the phone in his office a couple of days later to hear Angie say, “About that offer from the other day… if you really _meant_ it and all… I may have kind of cracked and told my ma that I already had a guy. So, I’m in a bit of a pickle. You think you could help me out with that, in the spirit of the holidays, or what have you? There’ll be lots of homemade Italian in it for you, and I promise I won’t go crying into your lapels this time.”

Jack leaned back in his chair, a smile already growing on his face at the very sound of her voice as he replied, “Well, with promises like that, how could I refuse? What time would like me to pick you up for our first dinner as a couple… sweetheart?”

“Tonight?” she answered hopefully, with an edge of pleading in her voice.

“Sure, Angie, no problem,” he told her calmly, hoping to convey the fact that he really didn’t mind doing this for her in the least.

“Thanks. Pick me up at six?”

“I’ll be there. Should I dress up in anything special?”

“Nah, it’s just going to be with Uncle Bert and Aunt Tania – and their devil child, Tonio.”

Jack grinned to himself. “Alright, then. I’ll see you then.”

Without further conversation, they hung up, and it was only when Agent Greer stepped into his office and asked, “What are you grinning about, Chief?” that it hit Jack like cold water to the face.

_He was already absolutely gone on Angie Martinelli, wasn’t he?_

 “Nothing,” he told the agent. “I was just on the phone with my girl.”

_At least… his girl for a month. And, maybe, if he could play this right, for even longer than that…_


End file.
